A gift of death is avenged by a nation in this powerful tribute to the ancestors who fought for survival from extinction.

(2013)

Attempting to create a period piece on a lower budget isn’t easy, but Mack dives in headfirst.

— MARK HANSON, Toronto Film Scene

Click to watch The Blanketing

I had just moved from Williams Lake to Vancouver (British Columbia) at 19 and I was really trying to find out who I was, not only as a person but culturally as well. I was also dating a great First Nations girl at the time and she was really pushing culture into my life. I also saw the result of colonization and assimilation back home and I wanted to give a reason for my people to be proud of themselves. I think First Nations people tend to take the negatives first, but we should always be focusing on the positives; we’re still here.

— TREVOR MACK on his inspiration for The Blanketing

William Belleau and Sean Wei Mah star in The Blanketing.

It could have been the camping in the middle of nowhere for four days with no cell phone service, barely any resources, it could have been the 15-hour shooting days in the middle of summer, it could have been the fact that we were shooting with babies and animals, it could have been 80% of the film deleting from my editing timeline (and there was no way to recover it) so I had to re-edit it.

Every aspect of this project has been immensely challenging. But I wouldn’t give it up for the world. I’m glad my very first film tackled all of these “donts” in film. I wanted that.